CITYLINK CLIENT PROGRESSION INDEX™
Pursuing the objective of holistic measurement was an iterative process over our first 6-years of operations. Along the way we wrestled through challenges and tensions to arrive at an approach which has enabled us to consistently quantify the client journey to better understand and improve our service.
When evaluating existing measurement approaches we saw 3 fundamental challenges:
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A five or 10 box scale was insufficient to capture the complexity of most of the realms
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Expressing a multi-variate realm in a linear expression is nearly impossible
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To perform any meaningful quantitative analysis, realms and their elements have to be weighted
THE CHALLENGE
VERSION 1.0 - A START
Our first intent of holistic measurement needed to create a simple way for all partners to see themselves in the context of the whole during our center's launch. At the time we lacked the working knowledge of the complexity of a linear expression and lacked the relational capital or experience with our partners to weight the realms. Our starting point, looked a lot like existing self-sufficiency indices.
This approach allowed us to:
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Create a common framework to rationalize partner outcomes
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Introduce the concept of holistic measurement and actively initiate measurement of the whole individual
This approach was limited in that it:
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Forces all attributes of a client’s life into five steps, which may be woefully inadequate to represent the incremental steps in a realm like education or employment
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Equally values/scores a step quantitatively in any realm despite there being dramatically different levels of effort and impact associated with each step throughout the various resource realms
VERSION 2.0 - GETTING THERE
After gaining real-life experience with our clients and relational capital with our partners, we reconstituted the framework to expand steps while simultaneously adjusting the weights in each realm. To weight the realms we ran multiple iterations with real life clients to adjust scoring until the weighting represented fidelity with our client experience.
Expansion of the model allowed:
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Clients and staff to recognize large steps and milestones in the journey
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Calculate a standard baseline and progression more adequately representing totality of journey
The challenge persisted with the tension of expressing a domain in a linear expression which was confusing and inaccurate. It negatively impacted the consistency of scoring by our Service Coordination team.
VERSION 3.0 - EUREKA!
Our breakthrough came when we realized that scoring should be a composite instead of a linear expression. By simplifying and separating the factors of each realm we could ensure consistent scoring and a logical approach to the complex challenge of holistic measurement.
A composite approach allows for the full variability to be expressed while simultaneously improving the consistency of interpretation and evaluation. Our service coordinators now consistently score clients in the same way. Most tension of complex situations has been resolved by scoring the individual composite realms and rolling that up to a score for the resource realm. While this approach does not lend itself to a simple presentation on one page, it offers the highest functionality, consistency, and value for evaluation.
APPLICATION
Theory is great, but it does not advance lives. The real benefit of the CityLink Client Progression Index™ comes within the context of a culture of continuous improvement.
Some examples of how the CityLink Client Progression Index™ practically impacts our work.
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Program Evaluation
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Portfolio Management
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Continuous Improvement
The CityLink Client Progression Index™ and the unique data set that is generated has allowed us to ask better questions.
We have partnered with local and technology leaders like IBM and SalesForce to run after those answers.
With advances in machine learning and a larger data set we have the audacious goal of answering questions around the optimal sequence of services for clients and understanding any base conditions for success.
ACADEMIC RESEARCH
If you are interested in joining other organizations who have adopted the CityLink Client Progression Index™ to learn and grow together, we are here to support you.
Contact us below to receive an example of the evaluation and continuous improvement work and options of how we can support your adoption of the CityLink Client Progression Index™.
We are excited to have more organizations come together to strengthen opportunities and outcomes for our neighbors.
ADOPTION
